The curvaton scenario provides a simple explanation for the generation of the cosmological perturbations, however most works have focused on cases with rather trivial curvaton energy potentials, e.g. quadratic ones. In this talk I will present the rich phenomenology of curvatons by showing that non-quadratic curvatons exhibit new behaviors, leading to interesting signals in the resulting density perturbations.

In this talk I will present evidence that accounting for the presence of hierarchies in string compactifications naturally leads to a UV sensitivity of dark matter in contrast to what is usually assumed. In particular, we will see that the existence of cosmological moduli may lead to a non-thermal history for the early universe and modifications in the primordial production of dark matter.

Dwarf galaxies are the most know dark matter dominated luminous objects in Universe. Observing the line of sight velocity and position of stars in Milky way satellites, and assuming the dark matter potential and a specific configuration of stellar orbits, one can obtain the mass profile of dark matter in galaxies.

Over
the past several decades we have obtained increasingly precise data on the
distribution of galaxies in the Universe and on the distribution of primordial
perturbations via CMB measurements. This trend is likely to continue for
the foreseeable future. In this talk I will discuss some new things to do
with data from the CMB, galaxy surveys, and future 21-cm surveys look for new
physics in the early and late Universe. Topics will include cosmic

I will discuss a wide class of models which realise a bounce in a spatially flat Friedmann universe in standard General Relativity. The key ingredient is a noncanonical, minimally coupled scalar fieldbelonging to the class of theories with Kinetic Gravity Braiding/Galileon-like self-couplings. In these models, the universe smoothly volves from contraction to expansion, suffering neither from ghostsnor gradient instabilities around the turning point. The end-point of he evolution can be a standard radiation-domination era or an nflationary phase.

Recent progress in massive gravity has made it possible to construct consistent theories of interacting spin-2 fields. In this talk I'll describe these developments, focusing on the resolution of the Boulware-Deser ghost problem and the promotion of massive gravity to a bimetric theory of gravity with two dynamical, interacting spin-2 fields. I'll then discuss the generalization of these bimetric theories to theories of multiple interacting spin-2 fields.

The standard cosmological model posits that the universe is homogeneous and statistically isotropic on its largest scales. However, there is no fundamental reason why these properties have to hold, and in fact they can be broken due to interesting new physics. Moreover, there is some evidence from recent WMAP observations for 'anomalies' - including departures from statistical isotropy - on the largest observable scales.

Inflation, a postulated epoch of accelerated expansion in the early universe, has become a principal component of the standard model of cosmology. From a wide variety of initial conditions, inflation produces a nearly homogeneous universe populated by density fluctuations that seed large-scale structure. However, inflation is such a good homogenizer that, once unleashed, in many cases it becomes eternal, ending only within spontaneously nucleated bubbles. In this scenario, our observable universe resides inside one such bubble.